Media statements archive

Parks and Wildlife Service are encouraging people to be cautious when operating powered watercraft around marine animals following the recent death of a lactating female dugong due to a vessel strike in the Exmouth Gulf. Parks and Wildlife staff removed the dead dugong from Exmouth Town Beach in early June. Necropsy results show that the dugong died due to catastrophic blunt force trauma to the skull, caused by a small watercraft. Wildlife officer Peter Carstairs said the necropsy was undertaken by veterinarians in cooperation with a PHD marine scientist from Murdoch University. “People need to be extremely careful when recreating in our marine environment. We have a very high abundance of marine animals that inhabit and frequent the waters of the Ningaloo Coast, particularly going…

The critically endangered Gilbert's potoroo has been given another reprieve from extinction, following promising results from two trial translocations to Middle Island, east of Esperance. The trials were carried out to assess the suitability of the island for the establishment of a new population. The species was believed to be extinct until it was rediscovered in 1994 at Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve, near Albany. In the following years, new populations were set up close by on Bald Island and in a fenced enclosure in Waychinicup National Park. In 2015, however, a lightning strike sparked a 1,230 hectare fire at Two Peoples Bay, destroying 90 per cent of the potoroo's habitat at that location. Following the fire, the then Department of Parks and Wildlife moved…

Western Australian government scientists have partnered with marine wildlife experts to develop a new whale rescue tool that tracks the real-time location of whales entangled in fishing gear. The technology allows responders from the Parks and Wildlife Service at the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions to remotely monitor the whale before safely attempting a disentanglement. A total of 10 trackable buoys have been provided to specialist whale disentanglement teams at strategic locations between Esperance and Broome, including three in Perth. The technology was developed by Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development scientists, with $73,000 in funding from the Australian Department of the Environment and Energy. The Western Rock Lobster Council has provided $20,000 for the purchase of the 10 buoys. Comments attributed to…

An innovative trial using expertly trained dogs to detect feral cats in a Wheatbelt reserve could help protect threatened species, such as numbats and woylies. In stage one of the trial this month, three dogs - a Malinois, a Terrier cross and a Labrador cross - and their handlers are working in Tutanning Nature Reserve, near Pingelly, to detect the presence of feral cats. Stage two, scheduled for 2019, will determine their effectiveness, in comparison with other control techniques and test combining techniques, to win the fight against feral cats. The dogs are trained to not attack the cats or native animals. Tutanning Nature Reserve is home to several threatened species that are vulnerable to feral cat predation, including numbats, woylies, chuditch and red-tailed phascogales.…

The Ningaloo Whale Shark Festival will celebrate the annual whale shark migration with a family festival day, gala cocktail evening, movies under the stars and live music this weekend. As part of the three-day festival, which starts today and is held in Exmouth, there will be free entry for visitors into Cape Range National Park on Sunday, May 27. The festival is a celebration of the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Reef and the iconic whale sharks that aggregate at Ningaloo Marine Park, between March and August each year, to feed on plankton and krill. The marine park's tropical waters are considered one of the best places to swim with whale sharks due to reliability of numbers and accessibility. Whale shark swim tours operating from Coral Bay…